In this paper I discuss a particular musical practice, the contrafacture, as an interesting case of artistic appropriation. I argue that musical contrafacture, especially in the jazz field, may deflate some biased assumptions that sometimes are taken for granted – mostly in the ontologies of music based on the type/token dichotomy. The case of contrafacture may support the philosophical views endorsing the link between ontology and social-artistic practices and accepting that the ontological constructions presuppose the different practices in which they arise. I strengthen my view of the link between musical artistic practices and musical ontology by considering the nominal ontological paradox generated by improvising on jazz contrafacts.
